MINING and its ECOLOGICAL BACKLASHES

      Mining industry has a good and bad effects . But obviously ,we are now experiencing the serious problems that we – humans are the reasons or culprits. The industry is responsible for the wide range of many environmental pollutants.

      Mining is one of the source of livelihood  here in our province. The people here considered it as “the easiest way of making money”. Thus, over a thousand miners are getting there money from the mining industry.

     Mining have good effects to us specially to the economy of the municipality, but don’t you know that it has also bad result to the rivers? It is because the liquid wastes or mine tailing from the ball mill plants are effluents to the rivers. It is so sad because the rivers are getting polluted and there are little children who are fond of swimming in the chocolate-colored river waters.This changes could be the reason of the skin diseases among children downstream , Minimata disease due to mercury poisoning among rural folks as well as the death of the  freshwater organisms. And Monkayo have Agusan river that have many tributaries such as Naboc River, Mamunga River and Ulip River all of which are receiving polluted waters from Mt. Diwalwal. So, imagine the hazardous effects it brought to us here in the lowlands/valley.

      Mining also result to landslides and soil disruption because they keep digging the soil inside the tunnel leaving a big hole. Thus, also endangering the people living nearby. Everytime there's heavy rainfall people are scared and vacate their houses.

     But there's nothing wrong about mining if  they only know how to  manage the mining effluents, if they only find a catchment basin for the tailing and prevent it in going to rivers.. Think that if they don't throw the mercury in the rivers, maybe it can be still a pollutant-free. And maybe, the people live near in the place are not exposed to above mentioned diseases. 

     Mining can also affect our daily lives especially teenagers  because they become school drop outs to mine for gold to augment family income than go to school specially to students who have families below the poverty line.

       If we continue to poison our own water  habitat, we might not live longer. So, we must take good care of our environment so that life could continue to thrive on earth.

Helping Children to Understand "CLIMATE CHANGE"

The Rain watchers Club Officers  with the adviser, Mrs.Jacqueline B. Bete 

Children viewing the film "Climate Change"

     Climate change. This is the abnormal condition of the weather nowadays and the world is facing it seriously, and it is hard for the children to understand what is real meaning of CLIMATE CHANGE . So the Rainwatchers Club memebers and officers decided to teach the children what are the causes  and ill effects if we didn’t care and save mother earth.

     First thing we did, we visited Samuag Elementary School , talk with the adviser of Grade IV-Del Pilar..Mrs. Josevyl Borres and ask permission for us to have lecture with her students.  Then .......we ask the children  if they do know about climate change. They said in chorus, ”NOOOO!!! WHAT IS THAT?”. Seriously, we pity them. They don’t even know the very serious problem that is happening now, and that we are having  global warming or the earth is having Global fever.Thus, we conducted a lecture. As we go over with the topic, they had so many questions that came into their mind, like, “So, if people knew before that climate change happens because of burning garbage, maybe we are not suffering from it, right?” or “How can people turn back the original beauty of mother earth?”. It is overwhelming that they asked that kind of question, which means that they care.

     Second thing we did is give them an activity related to our topic and that is “EFFECTS AND CAUSES OF CLIMATE CHANGE”. We let them write it in a manila paper.Surprisingly the children has a great output, they have answered the activity correctly. They already know the situation of our environment today and it is so awesome that they learn it in a short time. A FILM VIEWING ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE followed. And the children were all dismayed on the impact of forest destruction to the environment. At the end of our activity ,they promised to help protect mother earth .

    After all we are proud to say that the children that we taught has now a stored knowledge about the climate change and we are so happy that they listen very attentively. We are also pleased of their eagerness to learn about the certain topic we had. Some also showed their ability in constructing ideas, if you know what we mean.

    We hope that they will always remember the lesson that they have learned from us even though we are just  student like them and hoping that they will also pursue our goal and that is to protect MOTHER EARTH.
                                                                                                                                   by. RAINWATCHERS CLUB of MNHS

Recycling: One Way To Make Money

Recycling non-biodegradable solid waste like used mineral water containers and drinking straws into vases, ash trays base and flowers can help reduced solid pollutants in the environment......

     Recycling material is one way to aid our environment nowadays that it is seriously suffering from global warming. It is also a way of conserving the resources and also it is also the way of life  here in our municipality—Monkayo because we earn money through recycled materials.

     These turned to be “garbage” is made to become useful handicrafts and sell it to the market as a fully furnished material that would capture your eyes because of its beautifully handmade designs not only beautiful but also elegant. An example to that is the used  plastic mineral water bottles which can be design into flower vase and ashtray where used plastic drinking  straws  are used as accent in making flowers.

     Our school—the Monkayo National High School created a fashion show that would highlight all the recycled dresses or we called it “The Trash Fashion Contest”. This is to give importance to the trash that we thought to be not useful but can be made into stylish dresses and pillows. Over twenty dresses and fifteen pillows were made. The dresses were perfectly fitted to models that you would not believe it came from trash.

    There is no doubt that our school– Monkayo National High School—is one of the most eco-friendly school in the Compostela Valley Province. We also supports the campaigns regarding about the environment, also, strictly implementing the separation of garbage from biodegradable wastes to non-biodegradable waste to the recycled one. And there are two Material Recovery Facilities(MRF) inside the school campus.

     One of the projects of the YES-O is to buy new laboratory apparatus and equipment. In relation to this, used bottles are collected from the students and were sold to the junk shop. That way, the school saves the nature and at the same time, gains money in a modest way.

     The school also encouraging students to make profit out of papers and plastic bottles so even in a simple manner, the students make money in a good way.

     So keep on recycling to earn money and help make the environment clean!

ENVIRONMENTAL SIGNAGE'S

ENVIRONMENTAL SIGNAGE

     Signage, one way to remind everybody important things that has to be remembered. In this way people easily get the message you want to tell them.Simple it may look, but this signage's helps our school the MONKAYO NATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL   to become a more sustainable and eco-friendly school.

     There are about 60 signage’s posted around the campus and three–fourth of them are about the proper disposal of waste or R. A   9003 and saving mother earth : like, “THROW YOUR GARBAGE PROPERLY”, “SAVE MOTHER EARTH”,"SAVE PAPERS, SAVE TREES", "ONE TREE CAN MAKE MILLION OF MATCHES,ONE MATCH CAN DESTROY MILLION OF TREES", "THINK GLOBALLY, ACT LOCALLY", "PLANT MORE TREES TODAY,INHALE FRESH AIR TOMORROW","RESOURCES WASTED TODAY,RESULT TO SHORTAGES TOMORROW" , KNOW YOUR ROLE AS THE STEWARD OF CREATION", NURTURE NATURE FOR OUR FUTURE", "CONSERVE WATER", SWITCH OFF LIGHTS WHEN NOT IN USE",SAVE THE WORLD!". By this signage’s the students are reminded not to do littering , do vandalism and conserved electricity,water and other resources in and outside the campus.

     These signage’s are not only posted around the campus as decorations but this play a significant role as an “INFORMER”. But of course this signage’s are not only in our campus but also all over the municipality of Monkayo since our municipal mayor Hon. Manuel B. Brillantes Jr. is also an advocate for environmental protection, conservation and preservation. .There’s no doubt that MONKAYO NATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL and THE MUNICIPALITY OF MONKAYO are one of the nominees of the most cleanest  all over the region .

     As we interview our YOUTH ENVIRONMENT SCHOOL ORGANIZATION (YES-O) moderator and project raingauge point person, Mrs. Jacqueline B. Bete,  she says, “that if we continue caring for our environment or just simply obey the signage’s we can save the  MOTHER EARTH and preserve  nature for the next generation “. In addition , she states ,”Our place(EARTH) is not a toy that can be recycled no matter how many times we destroy it   but instead it is a home of every human being and should deserve care and love from  the people who live in it.

    As a concerned student , we advise you to read, follow and should not ignore the environmental signage’s that might help us to save our dying mother earth and please do join clubs not only in your school but also in your community that  campaigns  against "destroyers of mother earth”.

                                                                              by: Fronnyl Joyce Dingal

Signage along the covered walk.......

signage on trees....

Signage inside the classroom